What You Knew Before You Became a Pipe Smoker

[newbroom]

Approaching 2 years into pipe smoking, I thought about what I knew or thought about pipes and pipe tobacco before my switch from cigs to the pipe.

I've been around awhile and my exposure to tobacco began when cigarettes were simply everywhere.

I'd seen people smoke a pipe. Even saw my own dad smoke one once or twice. I didn't pay much attention other than sometimes the smell caught me.

For years, my impression of pipe tobacco was of a strong, harsh, and sometimes hot experience.

I'd tried a pipe more than once back in the days of my youth, but without 'success'.

Pipe tobacco? Prince Albert or Cherry Blend, and Half and Half.

Dr. Grabow and MM were about the only pipes I knew about. Oh..Medico, too.

I HAD NO IDEA!
I inhaled, smoked hard and fast to try to keep it burning and failed at something that in hindsight, I wish I hadn't.

 

[jvnshr]

I started smoking cigarettes in 2010, when I was 24. I have always stayed away from cigarettes and could have never imagined myself smoking cigarettes. I used to live in Korea during that time so seeing someone smoking a pipe was equal to seeing Santa eating sushi. I have never had any interest in pipe smoking. I was smoking cigars occasionally though. There was a nice cigar shop on the first floor of a famous hotel, I was going there from time to time to buy some cigars and cigarillos, accessories, etc.

Then I moved back to my home country, continued smoking cigarettes and rarely cigars. During my visit to Germany, I bought some RYO tobacco, papers, filters, etc. I was rolling and smoking until I went out of tobacco and I went to a local B&M. I asked for a RYO tobacco and that guy made a mistake (fortunately) and gave me pipe tobacco (unfortunately Captain Black Cherry). Without knowing it being a pipe tobacco I rolled it and tried to smoke it until I realized it was a pipe tobacco. Then I bought some RYO tobacco and mixed it with the Cherry, it was neither good nor bad. That Cherry stayed in the drawer for 2 years probably. I quit smoking cigarettes and bought a cheap cherrywood pipe and a Czech tool to give that Cherry a try. It burned my tongue like hell, fortunately I also bought Captain Black Regular while buying the pipe and I enjoyed it very much.

After leaving a filter in that pipe for a night, the filter got stuck in the stem. The pipe already had some cracks and I couldn't break it in properly (it was pre-carbonized, after the first smoke carbon layer began falling off). While trying to get the filter off the pipe I accidentally dropped the jar on the floor, the jar didn't break but the tobacco(Captain Black Regular) in it was all over the floor. I was very angry I threw away the pipe, Captain Black Regular and even the Cherry that was safe in the drawer.

I gave it a fresh start next day and ordered some MM corn cobs, bought some pipe tobacco from a local B&M and here I am enjoying my pipe.

 

[robwoodall]

All I knew was that Captain Black Cherry smelled like Heaven and bit like Hell!
I tried three times previously to smoke a pipe: College, Grad School and once about 10 years later. I failed each time. I probably would not have succeeded this time, had it not been for the internet and this forum.
Thanks!

 

[carver]

I have been a cigarette smoker more time in my life than I haven't been one.

I started around 14.

Pipes are for old dudes. Pipes are for grandpas. That didn't prevent me to try when in high school. But the experience failed. i got a cheap pipe at the local bookstore and got a pack of some Amsterdamer.

Poor experience. But it did get me interested.

Nonetheless, I went on smoking cigarettes.
I gave it another shot some 5-6 years ago but it was another failure.

Until recently, when I also discovered this forum and a local B&M...

Long hours of reading, long hours of talking, passed the "my mouth is a war zone" stage although still getting "hot" once in a while.

Discovered amazing people, even started making "friends" with some people here in China to share opinions.

It's been an awesome adventure so far. Not a cheap one though but hey...

 

[warren]

All I really knew, I was a smoker when I started, was pipe smokers seemed to attract girls with less effort at school than others. I figured being a jock and a pipe smoker increased my odds of getting my foot in the door. It helped a bit but, it was my line of patter that I really needed to improve.

 

[freakiefrog]

I had this image of pipe smoking as an old-mans smoke. I also thought that Aromatics were the only blends that you could enjoy. Now that I've learned to enjoy the pleasures of the pressed Va or the wonderful smoke that is a well blended English.

 

[hakchuma]

I knew inhaling was a pretty dumb idea. So I chewed baccy like my step father after he stopped smoking the pipe.
I knew pipes bit the tongue as my step dad mentioned. Dad also mentioned pipes were stinky and messy. Ill agree to that. In fact no matter what aromatic I smoke if I smoke an aromatic and come back to the room 15 minutes later I think it smells like shit. Probably because I have a more refined sense of smell because I had not smoked for 20 years
dad was a big shot baccy Kodiak chewing cattle man that never spit. But gave up on the pipe after years because of the bite.

 

[sablebrush52]

I knew that pipe smoke smelled great, unlike cigarette smoke, which simply stank.

 

[mrbigglesworth]

Never smoked cigarettes. Just always liked the smell of pipes and cigars. It's a sensory experience for me, and a way to relax, slow down, and enjoy life. The first time I walked into a real tobacco shop was sensory heaven, to me.

 

[hakchuma]

I think pipe smoke smells good while smoking it but after lingering in a room, or.in a car for a while it just stinks imo.

 

[mso489]

My dad and his dad both smoked pipes, Grandpa occasionally (I inherited his rack with amber tobacco jar, via my dad) and Dad smoked continuously until his mid-sixties. Dad smoked only Granger. My Uncle Roger was an upscale smoker and smoked some great smelling aromatics. I ended up knowing quite a bit about pipe smoking by proximity, although I never smoked a pipe until my mid-thirties. Never a cigarette habit, and inexpensive cigars now and then in college, and better cigars occasionally in my thirties and forties.

 

[pipestud]

When I was 5-6 years old I watched my grandfather smoke a pipe and was mesmerized. From watching "Pappy," enjoy so thoroughly his pipes, I knew that I'd be a pipe smoker when I grew up. I first tried a pipe when I was about 16 or 17 (soph or Jr. in high school. I bought a cheap pipe and a cheap tobacco. Hell itself could not have burned hotter. I never gave up and was more self taught than anything else. Have picked up lots of great tips over the last 45-years that makes my pipe smoking hobby so enjoyable now.
I have a saying; "Pipe smokers are born, not made."

 

[hextor]

I used to smoke a lot of cigarettes like newports and Marlboro menthol, but I had stopped because it was messing with my health, then I remember my dad used to have a pipe, he used to smoke it outside, never in front of us, I was curious so I bought me a mm cob and captain black, once I tried it I was hooked

 

[didimauw]

I only started smoking a pipe in 2012, and I already can't remember why I started...not a clue All I know, that I made a damn good choice

 

[tbradsim1]

Was about 5 years old when old carpenter Coon Lejeune in overalls would smoke his pipe while workin on our new house, putting it in top bib sometimes still smoking. Wondered how he didn't catch on fire. In Laos I squatted down around campfire with Hmong people and smoked their pipe passing it around like a peace pipe. In hospital in the States recovering from a wound, I bribed a nurse to buy me a Kaywoodie and smoked in the janitors closet late at night. Didn't know squat about tobbaco just like to smoke. It has evolved over the years and it is one of my greatest pleasures with a cup of strong Cajun coffee. Don't like sweet tobbaco, never have.

 

[seagullplayer]

Well I could buy the whole Santa story, but I just could not see how a rain deer could fly...
I also know that dad would switch to a pipe when money got tight.
As a teenager I would swipe a pipe and a pouch of apple blend now and again.
Took me more than 30 years before I ever bought my own. There are better things than apple blend I came to understand.

 

[mso489]

'Love it, smoking in the hospital janitors closet. My wife has to do some hospital time after the first of the year. The whole neighborhood is smoke free. I'll be spending two nights on a recliner. I'll have to find the janitor's closet, or somewhere, in January. Maybe I can buy a stethoscope and look for the physicians' lounge. Fortune favors the bold. I suspect the military medical facilities were/are more forgiving, since their clientele are supposed to be hell raisers, it's part of their job description.

 

[morton]

My grandpa and grandma on my father's side both smoked pipes. I've got a picture of "Queenie", my grandmother with a corncob in her mouth. They were of the firm belief that children should be seen and not heard so I didn't get to know them at all. My father also smoked pipes, all of which I have since his death many years ago. I started when I was 18, still have that first Peterson "Shannon" straight billiard I bought from a cardboard display at a corner store in 1977. I smoked, off and on, cigarettes and that first horrible cherry blend recommended until I discovered English blends and never looked back. No cigarettes for many, many years but the pipe has always been with me.

 

[iamn8]

I wish that, prior to smoking, I had something more than a hardly tenable grasp of relativity and astrophysics.

 

[philobeddoe]

Prior to buying my first pipe, I knew I wanted one, I knew in my bones that I was going to be like the old, distinguished men in their suits I saw smoking their pipes with that wonderful aroma. To this day, nothing smells quite so "manly" to me as Captain Black White smoke and Old Spice aftershave. I started looking at the pipes, cigars and tobaccos aisle from the time I was in middle school. I would study the various pipe shapes and finishes, I would also try to guess what the various tobaccos would taste and smell like. I bought my first pipe, a Dr. Grabow full bent and a pouch of Captain Black white when I was 16; this was the earliest I thought I could get the ladies behind the counter to sell me the tobacco, as it turned out they never asked for any I.D., things were different then.